In the fabrication of integrated circuits, it is common to grow a large single crystal of a material such as silicon in the form of an elongated cylindrical ingot, and later to slice the ingot into a plurality of thin wafers. The presently known techniques for slicing of wafers are not fully satisfactory in that a long time is required to slice a single wafer from the ingot, most of the slicing techniques result in the formation of a kerf of considerable width thereby resulting in material wastage, and also the known techniques often provide a quite rough surface on the wafers so that additional extensive polishing is required. For these reasons, it is recognized in the art that improved techniques for the slicing of wafers from ingots are highly desired.